There was a serious argument at the House of Representatives on Thursday regarding President Bola Ahmed Tinubu‘s proposal to prolong the deadline for the capital aspect of the ₦21.83 trillion 2023 budget and the ₦2.17 trillion 2023 supplementary budget until December 2024.
News360 Info understands that the President’s request was presented to the lawmakers today after Speaker Abbas Tajudeen reviewed the document, followed by the introduction of the executive bills seeking the extension.
However, when the Leader of the House, Prof Julius Ihonvbere, called for a second reading of the bills, the House Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, expressed reservations about the extension of the two budgets.
Chinda, opposing the extension, argued that it would be ethically questionable for the country to operate on three to four budgets simultaneously.
He pointed out that the budget for 2024 is in progress, and the executive is simultaneously seeking extensions for the 2023 main budget and supplementary budget.
He suggested that instead of extending the deadlines, the critical projects in the supplementary budget should be transferred to the main budget.
Former House Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, also backed the Minority Leader’s stance, stating that having three budgets operational at the same time would be morally unacceptable.
Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, during his intervention, urged the members to vote in favour of extending the budget implementation, citing that the majority of the items in the supplementary budget were related to security.
However, despite his pleas, the majority of the lawmakers appeared not comfortable with the request for an extension of the budgets as they kept on shouting “No!”No!”
After the development, the House Speaker requested that the House enter an executive session for members to resolve problems prior to continuing the review of the legislation.
The House is presently in an executive sessiona.
